History bites back
by Spica75
Summary: Buffy had a little accident. Principal Snyder is really pissed about it and thinks he has come up with the perfect punishment. That doesnt work very well as Buffy makes a new friend instead, but she really wasnt ready to find out a few additional things about the world and how it clashes with what she has been told before.
1. Oh woe is me?

This is fanfiction.

Anyone that believes any recognisable material this story is based upon in any way belongs to me is clearly very delusional and should seek medical help as soon as possible rather than waste time or money in taking legal action against me as they are obviously having serious mental issues.

Enjoy if you will, tolerate if you wont.

History bites back. 

Chapter 1:

* * *

Oh woe is me?

Buffy was getting really tired at hearing the little troll ranting, technically speaking, principal Snyder was giving her a lecture on how fire and buildings were two concepts that were not supposed to meet, especially not in his school.

But he looked like a little troll and his ranting was by now even getting repetitive, that was actually unusual, but the man´s enjoyment at just for once being able to smack down on her with complete justification was obvious, and so he kept ranting and Buffy kept waiting for him to be finished.

"-oh the joys of having an arsonist at my school. Didn´t you learn from the last time you burnt a school down ms Summers?"

"Hey, it was only the gym!" the moment she had spoken she knew it was a really bad idea and cringed inwardly.

One of Snyder´s eyes twitched repeatedly before he grinned maliciously.

"I think I have just the cure for your boredom ms Summers. Report back here tomorrow at 8.30."

He sat down and completely ignored her after the dismissal.

While Buffy left, she was really not a happy camper, principal Snyder had a knack of coming up with punishment, either long and dreary or simply just awfully bad, and giving her until tomorrow before telling what it would be, that was the mark of the truly evil. He was probably a demon or something, yeah Buffy was certain of it! She really wished he could just be nice and come out of the closet with it so that she could slay him.

* * *

-*Next day*-

Buffy entered the principals office and was rather surprised at seeing another girl sitting in one of the chairs in front of his desk. Not tall, actually fairly close to Buffy in height, asian looking but with a not exactly purple hair colour that just could not be for real, except unless the girl was really meticulous about it, there should have been something showing it wasn´t real. But it looked real, and with such long hair, colouring should really have been visible...

"Ah yes how good of you to drop by miss Summers." the false joy in his voice was almost horrible to hear "Now then, this is ms Tsukimura who has just transferred to this school and who will need a guide for the next month or so, at least,-" his glare showed very clearly that in his opinion it should go on forever and ever.

Buffy blinked with surprise, both because this kind of assignments, playing guide for a new student, was usually something for a day or two, at most a week or two, however she was even more surprised at this apparently being her dreaded punishment, what the hell was the catch?

"-as she is new not just to the school but also to the country and is a rather important lady it seems."

That made the girl blush slightly and Buffy had a feeling she knew what the principals twisted mind had come up with, this girl was apparently some sort of high society or something and the principal thought she would be horrified by having to spend time in such -distinguished- company, he probably even hoped that she would influence her or something. Buffy quickly assumed what she hoped was a mask of cheerfulness with an undertone of pain. It seemed to work as Snyders evil grin widened.

.

A few minutes later they had escaped the clutches of the troll and Buffy was about to give her a tour of the school, Snyder had actually ordered them to miss the first few classes for that reason, with the addition that Buffy was still not to miss out on the subjects of those classes, despite being ordered not to be there, _'oh joy...'_

The girl spoke up, a slight accent obvious but not so bad, she spoke very softly though "Eh, sorry about you getting stuck with me."

"You noticed?" the girl nodded.

Buffy chuckled brightly, surprising the girl.

"Oh don´t worry, I wouldn´t mind doing something like this anyway, Snyder is as stupid as he is mean, I was expecting something that was actually BAD as punishment and instead I just get an extra long assignment to introduce a new student, which is something I rather enjoy."

Smiling back "Oh well that´s good then. My name´s Suzuka by the way."

"Pleased to meet you, I´m Buffy."

"And what did you do to expect such horrible punishment?"

"Ah... I sort of almost burned down a classroom, which I guess might have burned down the rest of the school as well..." at the surprised look she got Buffy went on "Well we were doing some of that science stuff using burners and I was thinking about how something like that could perhaps be used for... ehm well, used for something else, so I got a bit distracted and next thing you know things got a bit out of control and all."

.

An hour later they were approaching the library "Oh right, you´re new in town and all so I should probably warn you that you need to be careful in Sunnydale at night."

Suzuka smiled a bit "I´m always careful."

"Ah... I think you might want to go beyond the norm here, Sunnydale nightlife is something you really don´t want to get bitten by. Oh and don´t invite anyone into your house after dark."

That made the girl look up at her, but not in surprise or disbelief as Buffy had expected but rather a searching, studying look followed by something she couldn´t identify.

"So, the plague has grown that bad." she said sadly "You don´t have to worry about me Buffy, I´m -very- good at taking care of myself."

Buffy was shaken by the odd response and reply as it seemed to imply that Suzuka actually knew where she had come... And calling it a plague? Well it wasn´t like she hadn´t heard references to the -undead plague- and similar before, but this had sounded very different from that somehow.

Shaking off the implications for the moment "So you´re a big bad fighter are you?" Buffy said while measuring up the short girl with her eyes accompanied by a crooked smile.

The reply was not what Buffy had expected "Yes I am, just like you." Suzuka said while equally measuring up Buffy, who was at most maybe a cm or two taller, with her eyes and a similar smile.

A moment later both of them laughed.

"In that case, want to spar a bit then, we´ve already covered most of the school tour and the back room in the library is actually quite a good place for a bit of exercise."

"The back room of the -library-?" Suzuka asked incredulously.

"Yup, the librarian is a stuffy brit but he´s got some neat sides as well."

Suzuka shook her head "Oh why not, I still feel like shit after the flight here and Farin isn´t really good enough to give me a challenge even if she can handle at least part of my strength."

"Farin?"

"My maid." at Buffy´s starstruck look Suzuka had to laugh.

"Ok... So, what´s your big bad fighting schtick then?"

"Well, I´ve learned from my sister but it´s not really a formal style as such, so I guess my... schtick... is the Fuwa ryu then, it´s the family style of a friend of mine. What she showed me is probably the most I know of a particular style."

"Cool, what kind of style?"

"Eh... Well I guess you can say it´s ninjas turned samurai turned bodyguards... Though I dont really use it that much I guess, I tend to just go for mayhem in general."

They were fortunate enough to find the library empty and a few minutes later they faced off against each other, the first thing Buffy noticed was Suzuka´s skirt, or rather what looked like a skirt but clearly was not, rather it was several separate pieces that were held together in the shape of a skirt but actually allowed her complete freedom of movement. '_Really have to get myself one of those.'_ she thought.

The second thing Buffy noticed was that Suzuka was skilled, not at all at Buffy´s level but not nearly as far away as she had expected, no matter how sure of herself the girl was.

What actually shocked Buffy however was that Suzuka was both faster and stronger then her, and seemed like she could take even Buffy´s fullstrength hits all day long with barely getting bruised.

And yet she still seemed to be holding back.

Buffy held a clear advantage for a while until Suzuka was sure the blonde wasn´t going to get injured easily, then she let herself use her strength and speed more seriously, although still not daring to go all out she still started getting the upper hand from time to time. Both definitely enjoying the challenge.

Half an hour later Buffy was an odd mix of happy and frustrated as they had sat down to rest leaning against the wall, she was supposed to be little miss superpowers girl and yet Suzuka was clearly not just one but at least a few notches above her in pure physical ability. Buffy being a good bit more skilled, balanced them out well enough for both having to work hard.

"Damn I haven´t had such a good spar for... forever or something, how the heck can you be so damned strong! You´ve gotta be superhuman or something." she said it as a joke.

"Of course I´m not superhuman, it´s a bit difficult to be -super- something that you´re not from the start anyway."

Buffy blinked... Several times. Then she slowly turned her head to look over at the other girl who was very clearly not aware of the look as she was tiredly leaning back with her eyes closed, although Buffy had to admit that she was probably much more tired herself, and after sparring with her she was almost sure the girl could have killed her if she had really wanted, it would have taken a while as Buffy´s skill would keep Suzuka from using her physical advantages to overpower her or get in serious hits until they tired as Buffy tired faster, but it was Suzuka that had suggested they break off for rest.

"Not... human?"

Suzuka looked up, saw Buffy´s face "What? You´re definitely a guardian of this place and you didn´t notice? I´m sorry I thought you knew the moment you first saw me, I certainly recognised what you are right away... Well broadly speaking at least, it wasn´t until I took the time to look properly that things clicked together so to speak..."

_'Guardian of this place? Wait, she knew WHAT Buffy was?' _"So what am I then?"

"A magically enhanced human of course, I dont really like that kind of spirit magic, it´s... too, too much nasty stuff with it, but it´s understandable that your people use it, a bit hard to fight the plague without it..."

After a few minutes talking, probing further, Buffy said "That´s the third time you called it a plague, you do mean vampires dont you?"

Suzuka looked away with a frown and growled a bit "Yes you call them vampires, damn fakes, I wish we had got rid of them all from the start, but just a slight bit of hesitation and they had suddenly spread all over the world like a plague."

"Ah... Fakes?"

Suzuka looked back up, this time with an almost stunned expression "Don´t you know even the basics of their history?"

"Not really much use for that, useful knowledge is more like -mr pointy stake goes here, vampire goes *poof*-."

Buffy was a bit surprised when that caused Suzuka to start swearing in at least 3 languages, really not what she had expected from the otherwise so far mostly rather quiet girl. Although she had noticed that Suzuka had become more and more talkative over time.

After she calmed a bit "You really mean that you dont know anything of it? I can´t believe they go through the trouble of creating guardians and then dont make sure to tell you about it. Or maybe you´re not representative?" she asked with cautious hopefulness, hoping but not wanting to be rude or anger the other girl.

"How would I know? There´s just two of us and there´s only supposed to be one, I´m the first slayer to ever even meet my successor!"

"Just one in a place like this? That´s... not ideal..."

"A place like... No, one on the whole earth."

"... Please say you´re joking?" Suzuka´s face had a pained expression "No wonder things were looking like they were going to pieces... We really should have kept an eye on things..."

"We?"

Suzuka´s mind was somewhat jumbled, and she was uncertain what to say, where to begin... The -if- part she had already skipped past, she liked Buffy.

"Uhm well, you know why there are none of your -vampires- in Japan?"

"There isn´t?"

"No there isn´t, because that´s where we live, real, original vampires, well with a rare few exceptions, and we really didn´t like it when those idiots tried to copy us, hah they got a lot more than they wanted when they lost control over them."

"You... You´re a VAMPIRE? B-but... but you walk in daylight and... and you have a pulse, I mean you´re alive!"

"Of course I´m alive! Real vampires are born just like humans, and live pretty much like them and we most certainly don´t have all those silly restrictions and weaknesses that the fakes have, well mostly at least, although some of us react a bit too much with water... That´s nothing that cant be supressed though."

"...born... You... have souls?"

"Obviously. Not that that alone makes much of a difference."

"Drink blood?"

"Sometimes. Not from humans unless they allow it... Well that rule depends on what clan I guess, but it´s not like it´s bad for them."

"What?"

"You want to keep in perfect health, make sure to ask a real vampire to bite you every few days or weeks." Suzuka replied with a chuckle.

"You´re kidding me..."

"Nope. Well the Marker clan is a bit different, they feed mostly on negative emotions instead, for them the blood is more like just a medium of transfer and their bites just make you more positive so it´s not really a problem that they bite around either."

"You´re not kidding me... Wait, back to the -we should have-?"

"It was us they tried to copy so of course we wanted to get rid of the nasty critters, but oh no, the humans were the ones responsible so they would -take care of it- and we should just stay out of the way. Ever since then, and that was thousands of years ago, us real ones have pretty much been doing a hardline non-interference policy. Eventually we ended up just staying completely out of the way, only dealing with the fakes if they attacked us, except where our biggest concentration of people were living, the islands that later became Japan, we cleared those out and have kept them that way. It´s just lately that some of us have finally started realising that the humans didn´t seem to be doing so well with their side of the deal, I didn´t want to wait for them to make a decision so I talked big sister into letting me go here and check things out in person. Seems I hit the jackpot right away."

"Humans created the vampires? Who?"

"Probably the same people that got you magicked up, they made them to fight what you call demons after all. Really bright move considering how few of those -demons- are actually actively hostile to humans. Even smarter considering how the fakes usually dont like to feed on demons, and prefers humans for dinner."

Buffy made a good impression of a fish out of water followed by a visual *eew*.

Suzuka went on, not having seen the shock "Of course, most of what you humans seem to call demons are really not, they´re just not humans, real demons, you can´t really mistake them for anything else."

"You know much about all this?"

"Ehm, not exactly, I know all the basic stuff... If you want to know more I guess I could ask my sister to send over some books. Mmm, maybe not, I guess you can´t read Japanese hiragana script?"

"Lots of squiggly little figures that dance around in front of my eyes, mocking my every attempt at comprehension, not so much no. Your books are written in that? Isn´t one of the others what they usually write in?"

"The phonetically based hiragana evolved from our script, it´s not completely the same but the changes are few and mostly small and the modern script lacks some letters but those who can read hiragana can often learn our script without too much trouble."

Buffy realised what had bothered her about the suggestion "Uh, does it matter if I can read the script when I sort of don´t know even a single word of your language, as I would guess that it´s neither English nor Japanese, not that I know the latter, or according to some teachers not the former either?"

"Doh!" Suzuka smacked her forehead in a by now classic gesture.

Buffy almost keeled over with laughter for a moment "Doh?... I mean... Doh? Maybe I should write a thesis about the tv-habits of vampires..." causing Suzuka to smother a laugh.

"I´m sure it would be absolutely fascinating and gain you much renown in academic circles." Suzuka replied primly with a completely serious and very solemn face, Buffy held out for a whole two seconds then almost fell over with laughter causing a pleased smirk on Suzuka.

"How can you keep your face so perfect like that?" not waiting or really expecting a reply "Never mind for the moment, if we clean up now we should be out just in time to meet up with my other friends. And I really need it, this was the best workout I´ve had ever, seriously. Definitely want some repeat matches!"

Suzuka startled slightly at being called friend, while she had had a few great friends for years now, it still made her happy, she really wasnt used to making -new- friends.

* * *

-*Shortly later*-

"Oh, resident defender of all things good and cute puppies approaching from the north, and she´s bringing ultracute company!" Xander quipped causing Willow and Oz to look up from the table where they were having something that technically was supposed to be lunch.

"Hi guys! Remember that punishment I was going to get? Well, meet the troll´s latest failed plan in his scheming against the wonderful me, Suzuka Tsukimura, she started school here today and it´s my holy duty to show her around and be all nice and goodie in general for an absolute minimum of one month, of course I´ll stretch that time a looot just to annoy Snyder."

"Ah, so that´s where you disappeared to." looking at the slightly off look at both of the girls in front of him, both seeming to have come just out of a competition of some physical kind, although Buffy looked more affected "Or maybe you two have been busy with some more fun exercise?" he added with a grin.

"Oh yes it was absolutely wonderful exercise, we just kept going and going, I think we managed to last over half an hour before we had to give up on each other." Suzuka said with cheerful dreaminess while putting one of her arms around Buffy and hugging her towards herself, leaning her head against Buffy´s shoulder.

Willow blinked then sprayed whatever it was she had been drinking quite forcefully, Xander looked starstruck while Oz lifted an eyebrow for a moment and then gave a little smile.

"Did I mention that she can be an awfully good tease sometimes? Suzuka, meet Xander, that´s him the guy who currently seems to be visiting outer space somewhere, Oz there is the ever quiet guy and the girl busy wiping her mouth because she has far too dirty imagination, that´s Willow."

"And guys, please get yourself out of the gutter for once, we did some sparring as the end of our little mystery tour of the school."

That finally got Xander back to reality with a slightly disappointed "Oh..." and went on with a rather lame greeting to the new girl.

Xander blinked, thought for a moment, blinked several times "Uh, if the two of you sparred, how come you´re the one looking the most tired? I mean shouldn´t your... eh..."

"You can say it, shouldn´t my glorious slayerness place me above most in endurance, and the answer is yes, but Suzuka has the endurance of at least 3 slayers and managed to give me the best workout ever."

"Ah... You... told her? You just met this morning and you already told her?" Xander asked with a sad puppy face.

"Actually no, I didn´t tell her. She knew, or more correctly she knew I was, as she put it a magicked up guardian of this place almost from the moment we met, the biggest hurdle we faced was that she thought I also had recognised her from the start, which of course I did not since I didn´t know she existed."

"Wait a second, you mean she´s another slayer? Wouldn´t that mean that Faith had died?"

"What, no no no! Totally nonslayery!" Buffy was a bit flustered, Suzuka had said it was ok to tell her friends as long as they were trustworthy, since they already knew all about Buffy, but it was still not exactly easy to come up with a way to introduce a -REAL vampire- this sudden.

"Eh, well... Actually she´s more of a... sort of a... ehm vampire...?"

Xander stared for a few seconds, then looked up to check that yes they were outside and the sun was indeed shining brightly and noone had replaced it with a really good lightbulb imitation in the last few minutes and when he went back to staring at Suzuka she did a marvellous little impression of cute with a sickeningly sweet smile, lifting her hand and waving slightly.

"Sunlight?" Oz asked.

Suzuka sat down "Real vampires dont have the weaknesses the fakes have." Oz nodded in reply, apparently satisfied.

"And no you don´t have to run off screaming" Buffy added seeing Willows and Xanders still startled faces "she´s not dangerous."

"I wouldn´t say I´m not dangerous, I simply don´t mean any harm to humans more than the average human might, well probably less." Suzuka said, adding the last with a thoughtful, tiny frown.

"Oh right, sorry. Anyway she came here because her people are getting a bit worried that us dastardly humans isn´t very good at upholding our part of an old contract saying they´re to stay out of things, dealing with fake vampires is the task of the humans..."

Oz leaned his head to the side for a moment while thinking "Why wouldn´t they stay out of it?"

"Because we were rather pissed off about humans trying to copy us for use as cannon fodder."

"Oh..."

"...eh... We as in including you specifically, you dont look old enough to have been around then I mean, not that that isnt a good thing..." Willow stuttered to a somewhat confused ending of syllables not quite connecting into actual words.

"Heh, no we don´t live that long even if we live longer than humans, but my family had representatives involved." Suzuka said with a friendly smile at Willow, which she then turned slightly wider, just enough to show her fangs, what little she had of such, making Willow *eep*, to which Suzuka replied with sticking her tounge out at her, and getting Willow to giggle instead.

"As I said..." Buffy drawled out "she also likes to tease people and is far too good at it. Oh by the way, it´s probably better if we dont tell the part about what she is to Giles ok?"

"Why not, wouldn´t he be thrilled with more knowledge?"

Suzuka replied before Buffy had a chance "Any organisation that has a setup like Buffy told me, I´m not trusting anyone from it yet, I thought it was insufficient with just Buffy as guardian in THIS place and then she tells me there´s just one for the whole world, or currently two if I got it right..."

Buffy picked up "Yeah that too, first of all though Giles can be a bit overly... categorical about things wouldn´t you say?"

"Right, telling Giles might be bad yes. Fine, wont do it, scouts honor!" at the glare from Buffy "Ok, ok I was never a scout, but I promise!"

"And I thought it might make for some nice practise for him to figure it out himself." Buffy added with a big smile.

* * *

-*o*-

Slowly heading off for next class, Suzuka quietly asked "Does Xander know about Willow and Oz?"

Buffy startled a bit "Know what?"

"She´s a mage and he´s a lycanthrope? I didn´t want to ask them about it just in case Xander didn´t know."

"Eh, yes he knows she´s a, well making with the witchy things and he´s a werewolf, and ask them about what?"

"A werewolf?" Suzuka said with surprise "Certainly not, they´re much stronger and have complete control over their powers. Lycanthropy can spread from getting bitten by one, a werewolf is born."

"Really?"

"Yes, they´re careful about not spreading it nowadays, but there always have to be someone that doesnt care, causing problems..." Suzuka sighed "Anyway, I wanted to ask them because Oz power is completely untamed and Willow´s magic is utterly chaotic, she really needs to get control over it or she could get into serious trouble." she frowned as she thought about what happened with Nanoha a few years ago "She could hurt herself or others."

Buffy looked at her with worry "That sounds very much with the not goody things. You know anything that could help?"

"I can probably help her at least a bit if I can have some time for practise with her, and if I can´t I have someone I can ask for help, although that might take a while to arrange."

"Oh goodie... How about... no that wont work, how about we show you to Giles tomorrow and then we get together in the library the day after, after school?"

"Ok."

Buffy suddenly had a thought "Hey, that means you know a bit about magic right?"

Suzuka nodded "I´m a very weak mage but I´m also actually rather good."

"Know anything about shapeshifting problems?"

Suzuka stopped and looked at Buffy with surprise "Shapeshifting?"

Buffy grimaced a little "Well, there´s this not quite friend of Willow that is a witch and to avoid being burned for being a witch she transformed into a rat..."

"Burned?" Suzuka started wondering where the heck she had truly ended up.

"Ah yes, some icky monsters affecting people´s minds, pretty much a weekly occurence here. Hellmouthy thing."

Suzuka was at least a bit relieved to hear that it had not been something that happened by people´s conscious choice "I might be able to do something. If not, I´ll just have to go ahead and see if Yuuno can get here sometime soon."

"Juno? Who´s she?"

"Yuuno Scrya, he´s a natural shapeshifter, I can almost guarantee that he can fix it."

* * *

AN:

Take notice though that while the Buffyverse as used here is probably canon or mostly so with a few small additions (it´s easy to stray accidentally and if something needs to fit in by some minor change, then the story takes precedence over canon ), the crossover makes use of a mashup from multiple continuities of the Nanohaverse and the preceeding "Triangle Hearts" series and games, in at least one of which, Suzuka´s family are vampires, combined with my own little twist.

There will be some material from "Rosario to Vampire" and "Karin" involved but mostly from the sidelines or in the background. Obviously, those will also have to bend a bit to fit in.

Buffyverse the story starts out in the middle of season 3, Nanohaverse timeline isn´t very relevant since Suzuka wasn´t much directly involved, but it´s closer to Strikers than anything else since Suzuka is same age as Buffy here.

This story will at least continue until the end of Buffy season 3, after that, we will see.

Since the Naruto-story is still my primary one, this one will get updates unpredictably and probably very slowly.

The story is what you might call half-serious so things will mostly not go strange or silly at a moments notice and I am taking the story seriously. At the same time, don´t expect me to do it 100 percent seriously.


	2. Confuse a watcher ltd

This is fanfiction(did anyone get shocked by that amazing revelation?).

Anyone that believes any recognisable material this story is based upon in any way belongs to me is clearly very delusional and should seek medical assistance as soon as possible rather than waste time or money in taking legal action against me as they are obviously having serious mental issues.

Enjoy if you will, tolerate if you wont.

* * *

History bites back. 

Chapter 2:

Confuse a watcher ltd.

* * *

-*o*-

"Hello Buffy." Suzuka greeted as she walked up to the street corner where they had agreed to meet this not so lovely evening.

"Hi there, welcome to the show! Mmm, you -were- serious about what you said that vamps can´t turn you right? I would really, REALLY hate to have to fight someone like you as a vamp."

Suzuka shook her head a little "That, you need not worry about ever, I´m really bad news to them if they try to feed on me, it´s probably the most stupid thing they could do. So, none of your other friends going along tonight?"

Buffy gave a small sigh of relief before answering "Nah, they need their beautysleep, I´ve gotten used to less sleep."

Suzuka tilted her head in a gesture of deep thought "Hmm, and here I thought they seemed rather pretty."

Buffy blinked, had her mouth half open, then paused before producing a giggle, causing a sly little smile on the other girl "Darnit, for a moment there I thought you were serious!"

Suzuka blew her a raspberry and then with a smile started walking "So, do you have any plans for this little outing?"

After a moment Buffy was able to reply again "Not really, no known vamps rising tonight, so pretty much just a general patrol anywhere I feel like there´s a need."

"There´s something I would like to try then... Vamps feel me, and if I stop keeping it, tight, my aura you can call it, it should cause fear in vamps, probably over quite a large area even, so..."

"Ah, you mean like scaring them up from their hidey-holes and have them run into little old me?" Buffy perked up at the potential of her duty becoming easier in any way.

"Mmm, downside is that we have to split up."

"Meh, sounds like a good idea to try, we can probably stay close enough at least. So if you let your, big badness all out, does it show?"

Buffy almost regretted she asked, as a moment later, Suzuka shimmered slightly without much of any actual light coming from her, her eyes shone brightly, and there was an oppressive heaviness in the air that made it hard to even breath for Buffy, much less move. A moment more and she could at least somewhat get around the feeling of having been dropped in the middle of thick, hard jelly.

There was a strangled squeak from behind a nearby bush and a vampire staggered backwards out from behind it, barely a second later, it went *poof* from the stake Buffy had thrown. That seemed to break the spell for her and she took several deep breaths and stretched some. Meanwhile, the shimmer around Suzuka became less visible.

"You ok?" Suzuka asked as she drew her aura back in tighter again, and the shimmer disappeared completely.

"Yeah, totally overwhelming at first, but I can handle it now I think... And thanks to it, I got a really easy shot on that vamp, it was weak but it was also smart enough to try to avoid me until you flushed it out, those are the ones that will cause real trouble later."

Suzuka nodded with a smile "Good, wouldn´t be much use if I affected you as much as the vamps, so, any special place you want to try and clear out?"

Buffy took another extra deep breath as she thought "Yeah, on the east side, there´s these two cemetaries there divided by a small patch of forest, it´s a real hassle, they keep running and hiding whenever I show up there. Oh and remind me that we should make sure the rest of the gang gets used to your special effects show."

"Oh right, sure."

"Maybe you could do it partially?"

Suzuka leaned her head to the side a bit "Hmm... I can try at least..."

They walked off without hurry, chatting.

-*o*-

Suzuka was surprised when one vampire that she had completely failed to notice suddenly jumped out from behind a tree and got in a seriously hard punch.

"Owwie!" came the exclamation as she bounced back a few meters and impacted with a tombstone "That -hurt-." she grumbled while getting up.

The vampire stood frozen in place several seconds in shock, Suzuka noticed that it was not in fact her he was looking at, she looked down and frowned "Aaw, you made me break that nice tombstone." meanwhile she mentally thanked her luck that she hit it flat on and that it was not one of the thicker ones, the vamp had hit really hard and hitting solid stone like that could have knocked her out, or if she had hit it on the edge, hurt her badly, she felt dazed enough as it was.

Still, thanks to that luck, she quickly recovered. This seemed to be the first vamp that had not run from her as she had slowly walked across first one cemetary, then the patch of woods and now almost halfway through the second cemetary while keeping her vampiric aura as obvious and extended as possible. All vamps running quickly before this one, not even letting her get close, had made her a bit too relaxed and she berated herself for getting complacent.

Unusually but perhaps not surprisingly, she felt pissed off because of how the vamp had managed to ambush her "My turn!" she said cheerfully, and grinned widely, causing the vamp to shiver a bit when he noticed that though very much alive, the girl in front of him also had obvious fangs, even if small.

A moment later, her fist impacted his head. Even though he managed to steel himself and get a partial block up, he still actually -flew- several meters before landing, quickly turning the messy fall into a somewhat controlled tumble.

It didn´t help much as she dashed after him before he was ready again, but then surprised him by dragging him up and grappling with him. He quickly obliged thinking she was daft and was quite unhappy to realise a moment later, when it was already too late to change his mind about what was or was not a good idea in this situation, that she was actually stronger than him by far. That he had some quite good fighting skill didn´t help much when she had locked them together like this, face to face like a wrestling match that had just begun.

Seeing how he tried to get loose, she gave him a wide, evil smile "Oh my, big bad vamp wants to make a snack of me, what ever can I do?" she said in a somewhat playful tone, almost making the vamp loose his grip completely at being faced with such theatrics, he growled, getting very annoyed. The sense of fear he had felt as she approached was bad enough but now his perfect little plan had really fallen to pieces.

Her smile turned seemingly nicer "Oh I know what I can do! I can let him -have- his snack!" she said it with mocking niceness as she started to force his fangs closer to her neck.

The vampire went wide-eyed and a few seconds later jumped in the last distance and bit by his own volition. Suzuka smiled contentedly.

Several seconds later, he stopped sucking and staggered backwards as she lightly pushed him away. His expression was now shocked, and moving towards pure horror. He stood in a daze for a few seconds, then the fingers on his hands seemed to change texture, from the reasonably smooth skin that even a vampire usually had, to something closer to stone, almost crystal.

"Never annoy your elders little demonspawn." Suzuka said acidly as the neck of the vamp solidified, and then the face followed, for a moment freezing the horrified last expression of the creature in front of her. With no balance left to keep what was now essentially a statue upright, it toppled over, and shattered into thousands of pieces of mostly dull crystal or stone.

Suzuka sighed and took a long moment to compose herself with a few deep breaths.

"You ok?" a somewhat wary Buffy appeared from the other side of the graveyard.

"Yeah, I lost my temper a bit when he almost knocked me out there. Well now you know what happens when they try to feed on a real vampire."

"Yeah, GROSS! Although some of the crystal leftovers are kinda sparkly and pretty..."

Suzuka chuckled a bit "Well that´s one way to find the silver lining I guess." she bent down and ruffled through the pieces, picking up several larger, more shiny and harder ones then simply used her foot to grind the rest to smaller pieces.

At Buffy´s unspoken but obvious question "We can make some nice little jewelry out of those."

Buffy blinked "EEWW!" then looked at Suzuka oddly.

Suzuka giggled slightly "Oh don´t worry it´s not some evil old blood ritual or me collecting trophies or something."

"Eh... Well, that´s good I guess. So if it´s not for your horribly nefarious and evil reasons, why exactly -are- you doing something as icky as that then?"

"Because with a bit of polish you really can make them look like gemstones, and vamps will react instinctively with at least a little bit of fear when close to them."

"... You mean like protective charms or something."

"Uh-huh, weak and wont actually -stop- a vamp, but should give a moment of pause when it gets close enough."

"What is close enough?"

Suzuka scowled a little "Probably much too close for comfort, but it will also give a hint of my aura a bit further so it should have a slight deterring effect overall."

"Xander and Willow?"

"Start with those at least, you never know how many of these stones will actually be useful, except for a few parts they tend to be too fragile for easy use..."

"But... You can make more the same way right?" the potential of being able to make monster repellants seemed like a wonderful idea to Buffy.

"There´s a limit. To get gemstone quality at all I have to... extend my aura while they are affected by my blood, ehm, something like that, and that´s not without effort. I´d rather not try doing it again for a few weeks."

"Oh... Wait, you ARE still ok right?"

Suzuka gave Buffy a smile as they walked on, now together "Not a problem, it´s just doing it repeatedly that is straining." after saying that she promptly yawned.

"Oh really...?" Buffy said pointedly.

"Hehe, yes really, promise. I would be getting tired soon anyway, that just made it happen a litte bit earlier. Unlike you, I need -more- sleep than an average human."

"Oh..." Buffy frowned a little "Guess it´s goodnight for you then..." she sounded rather disappointed at that thought.

"Sorry about that, I slept a couple of hours before coming, I thought that would be enough, wasn´t expecting to do anything special tonight after all."

"Nah, don´t worry about it, it was... fun, and nice really to have you along, and it let me clear out this place in a way I could never have done otherwise."

"Oh right, so it worked?"

Buffy laughed a bit "Oh it worked alright, I staked 9 vamps running away from you. Only one of them gave me anything close to a fight, most were too busy trying to escape to even realise who I was until it was too late."

"Well then at least it was a most productive and useful evening." Suzuka stretched and put her chin up together with making an imperious face and gesture just as they passed under a streetlight, making Buffy laugh again "And if you still need more help tonight, don´t hesitate to ask, my maid is a decent fighter, more skilled than me really, and even if she´s not at your physical level, she´s far above an average human, maybe halfway to your strength."

"Huh... Is that...?" Buffy was a bit uncertain about asking the rather pointed, or possibly fanged question.

"Yes, it´s because one of the things she provides is easy access to someone willing to let me feed, and after a decade of weekly bites, that makes for quite a bonus, but she also works out a lot, she´s trying to one-up me in sparring." Suzuka chuckled at the thought.

Then before Buffy came up with something more to say she made a slight buzzing noise, stretched her arms out and flapped slightly "I´m just a slightly large mosquito, nothing interesting to see here." she sing-songed.

Then she had to stop, because Buffy folded over from laughing.

Several minutes and a very easily dusted fledgling vamp later they approached Suzuka´s house "So, how well do you think we managed, I mean I don´t think we cleared anything out completely but, a good night´s work?" Suzuka asked a bit uncertain.

"Hell yeah! Sure I could only get those that ran straight from you, but I´ll bet we got at least half of the vamps from that area, and with the ones we took out before and after, 17 in just a single night? And -not- because of increased vamp activity? That´s a great result!"

Suzuka sighed in relief "Oh, that´s good... Well, I´m happy to help."

"Actually, I think we did so well that I´ll just run a short circuit from here and then get home and get some extra sleep just for once, I may not -absolutely need- as much sleep, that doesn´t mean it wont be a good thing."

* * *

-*o*-

Next day - school

"Hey Suzuka! Over here!"

Suzuka stopped and looked, locating Buffy through the crowd after a moment and went to join her.

"Hi Buffy." she looked around "Just you today or are the others late?"

"Nah, they had the amazing luck of volunteering for one of principal Snyder´s -wonderfully marvelous- little community projects."

"What? Oh, should I assume that the principals definition of -volunteering- is somewhat different from that of normal people?"

"Yes you should, I was just lucky to be a bit late so he missed me and apparently since I´m busy being your guide he didn´t hunt me down as relentlessly as usual. I´m certain, he is evil, definitely a demon in disguise!"

Suzuka giggled at Buffy´s annoyed little outburst "Sorry to disappoint you but he almost certainly isn´t, although he certainly DO seem evil enough for one."

Buffy gave a short chuckle then added a theatrical sniff and pouted "My wishes never go through, now I wont ever be able to slay him... Well, unless he shows off his evilness blatantly enough... Nah, he´s waay too evil to do that."

.

"So, how´s the day so far on your side then?"

"Just had math class, so pretty much perfect so far."

Buffy blinked in shock at such a horrific statement, she wasn´t used to anyone but Willow saying things even remotely like that "Oh right, you said you already had the equal of a full engineering education... And how did you manage -that-?"

"Mother, father and big sister all into engineering and I took an early interest and found it fascinating ever since, after I had borrowed some of their books a few times they started teaching me a little here and there whenever an opportunity showed up and made sure I got the complete set of textbooks... Sort of hard to not manage it then."

"Huh, cool... So why are you still in school then, didn´t you say you already had a couple of jobs on offer?"

"I want to finish school normally... And the best of those jobs would mean that I would have to travel far from home..."

"Uhm, you went across a third of the earth to get -here-, you don´t count -that- as travelling far from home?"

"Eh, ack! Oh damn-" Suzuka frowned indecisively then with some embarassment "Sorry Buffy, it´s not my secret to tell."

"Oh well, as long as you´re not running off to some nasty hell dimension or blast off into outer space with aliens or something..." Buffy quipped with a smile.

Suzuka froze for a moment and let out a strangled "Ehehehm..."

Buffy´s eyebrows went noticeably up "Riiight... Hell dimension?" she asked sceptically. It was definitely not a place she would connect with Suzuka.

"Ehm, not quite that one no..."

Buffy blinked several times "So... aliens or outer space then?"

"Technically aliens I guess and outer space yeah... But I really shouldn´t... Next time my friends from -afar- comes to visit I´ll ask them to tell you about it ok?"

"Sorry didn´t mean to pry, wasn´t supposed to be a serious guess, but hey, WAY COOL! Life on other planets!"

Suzuka laughed with relief, not wanting to keep something from Buffy, but also very intent on not giving up her other friends secrets. Her reaction to Buffy´s joke guess had forced the issue far enough already.

Buffy gave her a wide smile "Don´t worry I know -very- well how it can be to keep both your own and others secrets."

"Thanks." Suzuka replied very heartfelt "You know you´re a really good person Buffy."

Buffy faltered for a moment but then smiled. It was nice to be appreciated for herself just for once.

* * *

-*o*-

Stepping into the library after classes of the day were over they made their way to the small office, as Giles noticed her he was halfway about to start talking when he saw Suzuka tagging along behind, she gave him a smile and a wave as Buffy started talking "Hi Giles, remember the punishment I was promised for that little accident? Well, meet Suzuka Tsukimura, she just transferred here yesterday and is my responsibility for at least the next month. Personally I´m almost ready to thank the principal, Suzuka is the best sparring partner I´ve ever met." she looked up in mock thought for a moment "Nah I dont think the troll deserves it, he did it to be mean after all."

"Eh, right..." Giles got over his surprise fairly quickly, he was used to getting surprised by his slayer by now "Welcome to Sunnydale high ms... ehm, Suzuka."

"Thank you, the last name is Tsu-ki-mu-ra."

"Right, sorry about that I wasn´t expecting anyone new." Giles was trying to think of some way he could bring up the subject of how the new girl could be such a great sparring partner for Buffy and still not get weirded out by slayer abilities. He wasn´t really getting far so he just figured he would have to wait and ask Buffy later, the girl didn´t look very strong so he doubted she would last very long no matter how good she was.

A moment later he realised they were waiting to see if he was going to continue or not "Ehm, good that you´ve found someone that shares your martial interest Buffy, just dont run off until I´ve had a chance to speak to you later ok?"

"Sure, come on, lets get shakin and-a breakin again." Buffy got a small giggle from the girl and as they went towards the backroom, supposedly one of several large storage rooms for the library, Giles was wondering over how cheerful Buffy seemed, an unusually natural sort of cheerful, something he all too rarely saw in her. Well, at least that was a good thing...

A few minutes later Giles heard that, yes, they had certainly got around to doing serious sparring, despite the closed door in between, the closed door with at least a basic degree of sound proofing, he heard quite a lot. After a particulary loud *smack* a while later he got worried that Buffy might´ve gotten careless, the other girl was smaller than her and certainly didn´t look like she could take slayer strength. He quickly went to the door, and opening it he stopped in surprise at what he witnessed.

In the middle of the large, slightly padded room, Buffy was currently up close with the other girl and trading blows at a rate he had barely ever, possibly never seen before, then the pattern changed and after a few kicks and punches they moved apart a bit, then Suzuka charged in but overdid it slightly letting Buffy catch her in a grapple-swing that sent Suzuka flying hard into the nearby wall with another loud *smack*.

Giles was instantly ready to run off and call an ambulance but before he even had finished the thought the girl was back on the floor, he missed her next attack on Buffy when he saw that she had left a clearly Suzuka-shaped indentation in the wall, he wasn´t certain the padding was even thick enough for that deep of a mark to happen, a moment later Buffy was thrown into the opposite wall, not nearly as forcefully but still enough to leave a hint of an imprint on the wall, Buffy took a little longer to get back into the fight but she was smiling brightly even while she shook her head.

"Good lord..."

After watching in astonishment another 10 minutes, Giles noticed that while Buffy was beginning to tire a little, the other girl was not. He had also noticed that Buffy was clearly the better skilled, but Suzuka seemed to have impossibly much strength, speed and apparently even more so endurance.

Then, after another short flurry of strikes while staying close, again they moved apart, Suzuka suddenly jumped, but not at Buffy, instead she jumped high enough that she could launch herself back down with her legs from the roof, striking a single extreme punch as she came down.

Buffy got out of the way fairly easily, but the floor most certainly did not. The padding on the floor absorbed much of it, but it wasn´t thick and the impact visibly cracked the floor, making both girls stop and look.

"Ooops?" was Suzuka´s embarassed comment towards Giles, then she looked back at Buffy and a moment later they laughed, more so when they looked back at the still shocked Giles.

"Perhaps in the future we should only spar completely without restrictions at my house instead? The training room there is made to handle my strength after all. Two-inch thick steel plating and all."

Giles opened his mouth but there were no sounds coming forth.

"Oh come on Giles, remember I -did- say she was the best sparring partner I´ve ever had? You do remember I´ve sparred against Angel, Faith and Kendra among other things?"

"What... Yes, yes..." gathering himself together again "But Buffy, those are... ehm... special, not something normal people can handle."

"Who said I was anything like normal -humans-?" Suzuka added with an overly cutesy look, adding a blatantly flirtatious batting of eyelashes and a slightly toothy smile when he stared.

"Then what are you?"

"Oh I already told Buffy but she figured it might be a fun homework assignment for you to find it out on your own."

"Right..."

"And as long as I´m in town, I´ll see if I cant help Buffy cut down on the vamp population a bit. Seems like she could use it, being the only guardian around and all." Suzuka added with a bit of acid in her voice and a small frown.

Giles jerked his head up, after a moment "You´re a demon hunter of some sort?"

"Well... I´ve been known to fight a demon or two, real demons not the non-humans that you seem to include in that category, but overall nope, not a demon hunter. And that was your guess for today, better luck tomorrow!" she said cheerfully with a big smile as she dragged Buffy with her to the small room connected with the large training room, which included a tiny shower, something both of them currently could make very good use of.

Giles shook his head as they left.

.

Not quite half an hour later, Suzuka had left a short while ago and Giles had gone over current happenings with Buffy "Now Buffy, who is that girl really ?"

"Giles, I´ve only known her since yesterday and I already like her, a lot. And when she realised that I was the only -magicked up guardian- as she put it, that was here, well with Faith as a bonus, she volunteered to help out as she could with no strings attached or anything. Xander, Willow and Oz all thinks she´s good, heck even Cordelia didn´t mind her, although I guess that might have something to do with her having enough money to have her own personal maid, or several more if she had wanted. And she´s letting me go all out in sparring, I´ve never been able to do that even against Angel or the other slayers, I actually felt that I improved a tiny bit just from the spar we had yesterday and today."

After a moment of thought Giles asked "Why the sales pitch Buffy? If she´s so good, why do you need to sell her to me and good lord Buffy, why did you tell her what you are just like that? You already know how much problems that might cause, you don´t know if she´s good at keeping quiet about things."

Buffy sighed a bit "Actually Giles, I know without doubt that she can keep my secrets, I´m keeping some of hers as well... And I -didn´t- tell her, she recognised what I was at first sight. Later she suddenly brought it up while we were talking as if it was nothing special, because she thought I had already recognised her as well... Aaand... The sales pitch is because you´re probably not going to like what she is when you do find out, at least not until you figure out the rest of it, if you can that is." she added the last part with a cheeky smile which turned into a frown a moment later "But Giles, one thing she got really unhappy about was the thing about there only being a single, or in this case two slayers. If you want to know what she is, start with that she got angry about there only being a single -slayer- and that her family knows more about the history of vampires than you do."

"...What... How can her family... She´s not another vampire is she?"

With a completely straight face Buffy replied evenly "Giles, she breathes, she has a pulse, she was born from a mother and father, she´s certainly not an undead. And she´s not a demon either. Fortunately, as good a tease as she can be she would make half the world giggle to death." Buffy didn´t add that in this case she was using the word demon as Suzuka had told her yesterday that it ought to be used rather than merely as a substitute for nearly anything non-human, as it seemed the watchers council far too often did. After all, it did make more sense, with how much more powerful big bad demons really were.

Giles had known Buffy for long enough to instantly realise that there was something she wasn´t saying or something she was skirting around, but also that she wasn´t lying to him, thankfully.

The problem was that analysing what she had said in that light, it didn´t make sense, if she wasn´t undead she clearly could not be a vampire and Buffy had said unequivocally that she was not a demon. And yet...

So what did that leave as she was clearly saying that she was not human, actually the girl had implied that herself he realised, she could have said she was not like normal people, instead saying specifically that she was not like normal -humans-...

"And you wont tell me what she is?"

Buffy smiled brightly "Nope! Well, maybe eventually if you cant figure it out yourself mr research machine."

With an exasperated look and a sigh "Yes yes, I´m sure you will get your little fun out of it, just make sure it´s not dangerous, now run off home and get some rest, the likely new vampires for tonight I told you about, here, I noted them down for you. Nothing that should be any real danger."

"Ooh, personal secretary, getting up in the world I think, thanks Giles, see ya!"

Giles sighed again and then went back to trying to decipher the clues he had clearly been given for the amusement of the two girls. And again he ended up bashing his head against a metaphorical wall, it didn´t make sense!

After the greater part of an hour of thinking and occasionally finding a book he thought might expand on the clues he still wasn´t really getting anywhere at all.

'_The history of vampires, her family supposedly knows more about it than me... or did she mean -US- as in the watchers? But how could that be possible? And why would she be angry at there being just the one slayer, it´s not like you can have more, well under normal conditions at least, it obviously was possible to skirt around that rule at least a bit,' _reminding him again that he had -still- not managed to go over the records fully and find out if that had happened before. _'But if she wasn´t human but also not a vampire or demon, what was she, a ghost or something..._'

He actually spent several minutes thinking that possibility through seriously, but in the end he came up with far too many reasons shouting out -impossible- at him.

'_And I´m not going to like what she is until I know all of it..._' That made him shake his head again.

Three hours later, he finally gave up to go home, the best he had been able to find were a few cryptic remarks that might just suggest that the organisation that eventually became the watchers had had some sort of issue with a third party about who were -allowed- to hunt vampires. It had surprised him rather a lot as he could not think of any reason why the watchers would ever turn down unconditional help against the vampires, which from the few hints he had, had apparently not been a side that was actively hostile to humans...

Just as he was leaving he stopped when he realised that the hinted at third party had indeed wanted to be involved without anything in it for them, and Buffy had said that the moment she had found Buffy to be alone in her task, the girl had volunteered herself with -no strings attached-.

Was it coincidence or was it a clue to what that third party and possibly also Suzuka was?

Then he noticed the little note Buffy had left behind for him, tonights version of the closest thing to a report he had managed to get her to write over the years, it was still not something she did often, and went wide-eyed as he read "16 vamps dusted, 1 crystallised, nothing special happening."... with a little smileyface after the word -crystallised-.

'_Seventeen? That´s well over three times the normal for a night without anything special happening. And what the bloody hell does she mean with -crystallised-?.!_'

* * *

-*o*-

Gundum M and BrokenMimir, don´t worry I expect to finish this as far as end of S3 for Buffy, at least that´s as far as my mostly not so specific planning goes. I may not update regularly or often but it´s coming along. After this chapter I have another ~8500 words written already, it´s just that because I write non-linearly it can take quite some time before enough of the words written ends up being part of the next chapter so I can finish and post it.

And yes, I borrow the part with Suzuka´s blood turning vamps into stone(among a few other minor details) from the Blood+ world to add a little -spice- to things. Since it needs to be applied -internally- to really take effect it doesn´t really add power to her.

And since there´s not so much about Suzuka´s personality beyond Nanoha A´s, as I show her here is one of my guesses at how she might turn out. I just can´t stop coming up with silly antics when she´s around...

Anyone note the origin of the chapter title? It´s a silly pun but at least a little fun right? ;)


	3. Klichés and heroics

In case anyone needs a reminder:

This is fanfiction.  
Anyone that believes the material this story is based upon in any way belongs to me is clearly very delusional and should seek medical assistance as soon as possible rather than waste time or money in taking legal action against me as they are obviously having serious mental issues.

Enjoy if you will, tolerate if you wont.

* * *

Klichés and heroics

Walking homewards, Cordelia tried to increase the pace, she was well aware that being out this late in Sunnydale was a bad idea, but Harmony was not cooperating, apparently oblivious she seemed set on a casual pace while talking, and she was too caught up in her own talking to notice either Cordelias attempts to speed up or that she wasn´t being very responsive.

That they were walking home together had been somewhat random and rather unexpected for Cordelia, but Harmony seemed to have concluded that she might just give Cordelia a new chance, at least for the moment, when they found themselves stuck with shared homework. Homework Cordelia just happened to be good at.

Or maybe she was just bored with not having enough people listening to her.

And that´s when their luck ran out, as a trio stepped out of the shadows in front of them, apparently an older male, a teenage boy and a young woman, but all three with blatantly inhuman gamefaces.

Harmony stopped talking abruptly with mouth hanging open as she saw them. To afraid to say anything.

"Run Harmony!" Cordelia whispered to her not quite friend while she edged ahead of Harmony, who looked over to her for a moment in surprise then back front with increasing shock at the inhuman appearances, running away was currently not something she could quite figure out how to do, Cordelia telling her to run and then placing herself to shield her had actually surprised Harmony enough to keep her completely still.

Cordelia had almost instantly figured out that all three vamps were very recent ones, she had seen enough in the last couple of years to recognise their uncertainty for what it was.

But that didn´t help much, a single fledgling she was fairly confident she could handle, probably more than a little bit -overconfident- but one way or another she was sure she could survive an encounter with a single very green vampire like these, they seemed to need time to grow up like humans.

But three of them? Even two was completely outside her league alone like this, Harmony had zero experience and didn´t count. She repeated her words in a hiss towards Harmony who remained completely unmoving except for the eyes.

Cordelia wasn´t quite sure why she was trying to play the hero in a hopeless situation like this, but she had reacted without even thinking about it. 'Maybe I´ve got some screwed up sense of noblesse oblige hiding somewhere...' she thought with sarcasm.

One of the vamps sniggered at the scene. The woman smiled viciously and coyly spoke up "Vat hav ve here, a hero vannabe?" ending with a nasty sounding chuckle.

'You´ve gotta be kidding me?' even Harmony had startled over the ridiculous and obviously fake accent. Had she picked it up from some really bad vampire-movie or something? On second thought Cordelia figured that, yes she probably -had- done just that.

Cordelia could feel how they all tensed up, the vampires about to pounce, she and Harmony hoping for a chance to get away. And just as she knew that the next second, they would come at her, in much less than a second, the two male vampires turned to dust with surprise evident on their faces.

The young woman stopped, barely having begun the first step forward and froze up. Cordelia had become used enough to surprises and quickly looked around, approaching from across the street she felt elation as she spotted Faith, currently trying to split her attention between the remaining vampire and what Cordelia a moment later saw was a woman in her mid twenties, focused almost completely on the vampire, walking up from ahead.

"Oh no you dont!" Faith shouted as the vampire woman started moving again, and somewhat unsteadily tried to run away from the new arrivals, stupid enough to use high heeled shoes. As the vampire was at it´s closest, Cordelia neatly threw the heavy book she had been carrying, smacking into the vampire´s head and making her fall for a moment, allowing Faith to catch up and finish it off in merely seconds.

"Thanks for the help Faith."

"Huh? Oh, yeah no problem." Faith thought for a moment as she looked closer "Cordy, right?" as she walked up and handed over the book.

"Cordelia, but Cordy is quite alright for people saving my life." Faith smirked at that statement.

"Nice pitching arm there, but shouldn´t you know to keep away from the streets at this time of night?" Faith still tried to keep a lot of eye on the 4th woman who had stopped a few meters away, apparently calmly waiting for the other three to be done talking.

Cordelia grimaced "Well, stupid teacher got us stuck with a bunch of extra work and our schedule crashed badly." she turned towards the lightpurple-haired woman nearby "And thanks to you as well, you´re Farin right?"

The woman smiled slightly and gave a tiny bow "That´s me, you go to the same school as Suzuka then I guess?" Faith finally relaxed, she didn´t get any bad vibes from the woman, but anyone who could dust even an unmoving vamp from over 10m, was definitely potentially dangerous.

Cordelia nodded "I thought I recognised you from when you drove her there... Yeah, Buffy seemed to take a liking to her. No wonder if you´re some kind of demon hunters or something..."

That made the womans smile broaden a little "Demons are a bit out of my league most of the time, I leave that to my mistress and her kin. We should probably get the two of you home now."

...

Ten minutes later, one very shaken Harmony was safely inside Cordelias house getting a few explanations and outside the two remaining females looked at each other a moment.

Farin broke the silence "Miss Faith Lehane? Slayer?"

That got Faith to jump a little, but if there was a connection to Buffy, and the way she talked casually about demons and hunting them... "Yeah?"

Farin smiled at the cautious tone "I was going to look you up in the near future, but now that we happened upon each other anyway, would you like to walk with me so that we can talk?"

"Uh, sure why not..."

They began walking casually, shortly Farin spoke up again "One thing that came up during miss Summers and my employer´s meetings was the formers unease at how the, watchers, were providing you with insufficient support for your activities."

Faith wasn´t exactly happy at hearing that people were talking about her behind her back, but it warmed somewhat at least that they were thinking something not bad of her, someone caring about her didn´t hurt either "Yeah, so?"

"Miss Tsukimura wanted to ask you if you might be agreeable to the option of taking up residence in the gatehouse of her mansion, she also had a few ideas about offering you employment on top of that..."

Faith almost stumbled for a short moment "What, what kind of job?"

"Guard at the gate, nothing serious, it´s probably enough that you´re seen there sometimes, and possibly as assistant groundskeeper, we have found a decent man for the job, but he could use some help, especially with the lawn."

'Damn, that´s a world better than the crappy waitress jobs I´m stuck with now...' "And no strings attached?" 'It just sounded too good to be true...'

"Nothing that I expect you to have a problem with." at the questioning look she continued "The important thing would be an agreement on confidentiality, and with your current nighttime work, I expect that not gossiping about private matters should come quite naturally for you?"

'And Cordy said Buffy liked the girl she works for...' It was an easy choice, almost anything would be better than the rundown rathole of a motel she stayed at currently "Deal."

"Good. Will it suit you if I come and help you move tomorrow at 9 then?"

Faith went 'Huh?' for a moment "Eh, sure." a bit uncertain that the woman was so ready to offer assistance, Faith didn´t really have enough that needed moving to need help with it, but it would still be nice to have both the help and the company, the woman was a bit stiff in manners, but also gave Faith a rather nice feel. One that she had been missing for a long while.

-*o*-

* * *

"Hi Giles!" Buffy managed to get Giles to jump a bit as she walked into the library with the loud greeting during lunchtime.

"Buffy, whatever did you mean with that -nothing special-? Seventeen vampires in a night is a lot!"

"Nah, more like one very late evening."

"... How can that be nothing special, and what on earth did you mean by -1 crystallised-?"

"Oh well, it was really fun to have Suzuka with me you know, she does this little trick with her, aura or something, and it scares vamps silly most of the time, she really helped me flush out a lot of them, you know those two cemetaries on east side of town, anyway, one vamp annoyed Suzuka so she let it bite her."

"... SHE WHAT?"

"Result, 1 crystallised vamp."

Giles blinked in confusion several times "She turned a vampire into stone?"

"Eh, well sort of, more like, her blood does that to vamps, ehm, they´re like you know her natural enemies or something?"

"... A vampire feeding on her turns it to stone?"

"Yeah, really gross! Especially when it shattered against the ground and she sort of ground most of it to dust with her foot... She -really- didn´t like that one. Though some parts became like shiny pretty gems."

Giles sighed "And how exactly do you know that you can trust miss... ehm, Suzuka?"

Buffy smiled brightly at him "Because Giles, all the slayersenses I have are like totally shouting with joy that she is a -friend- and a good guy, well girl, good girl, ehm... Oh whatever you know what I mean. It took me a couple of days to realise it, but it´s like feeling vamps except the opposite, instead of slimy and icky evil, it´s... It´s sunshine and cute kittens or something."

.

As Buffy left the library a few minutes later Giles still had trouble deciding what to believe.

"Oh Giles, you´re here later tonight right?" Buffy asked from halfway through the door.

"Hmm? As usual I will be here late tonight yes... You needed something?"

"Nothing special, just wanted to check, byee!"

-*o*-

* * *

'Hmm, she had her last class for the day over there, so she should be, -there-!' Buffy snaked quickly along the corridor until she got where she was aiming as she smiled and waved at Suzuka who was waiting.

"Hi Buffy, ready to face the horror of poorly chosen elective classes again?"

Buffy instantly pouted, to the amusement of Suzuka "Don´t remind me, bad bad Buffy picking a class that keeps me in school more than 2 hours late..."

"I´m sure you will get over it... One glorious and most happy day!" Suzuka proclaimed with a grand gesture.

Buffy´s pout dissolved into a short laugh "Evil, -funny- but still evil..."

Suzuka grinned, Buffy was funny to tease, getting more serious she asked "So, after school?"

Buffy nodded "Yup, Willow gets a ride from Oz so she has time to pick up Amy and Xander didn´t have any problems coming either. You´re going home to get some dinner then?"

"Good... Yes, and to greet my new employee."

"Hmmm?"

"Well you did say you worried about Faith?"

Buffy blinked "You -hired- Faith? As what? I mean you don´t have a company running here or something? And I rather doubt she would make a good maid."

Suzuka giggled at that mental picture as she shook her head in a -no- "I simply offered her the gatehouse, I wanted someone there eventually anyway, and you wouldn´t believe the amount of grass there is around the house, we have a groundskeeper already hired, but he´s not going to have the time to do all the lawn."

"Huh... Stuck in the middle of the jungle eh? Well that sounds way better than what she was stuck with before, thanks."

-*o*-

* * *

Faith was almost ecstatic, the gatehouse might be -small- compared to most regular houses, but it was still a fullfledged home, a small but complete kitchen, a nice and only slightly compact feeling living room, a larger and a smaller bedroom, a combined storage or guestroom and a kind of workroom lined up with the gate that also held the monitoring gear connected to the outer security perimeter of the mansion.

Why whoever built it had bothered with the fullsize basement and the halfheight attic was a bit of a mystery, but having a porch both towards the gate and on the opposite side was certainly very neat.

Moving in had been an interesting event to say the least, Farin had picked her up at the motel, easily and quickly helped pack what little Faith had there, then brought her to the partially furnished gatehouse, at which point after a quick walkthrough to check what was there, she had simply brought Faith with her onwards to town and with the somewhat stunned input added from Faith, purchased additional furniture and whatever else was needed to make it a complete home.

The doorbell sounded, Faith smiled crookedly 'Even the fuckin doorbell sounds nice here.' So, who would be coming here... It only took her a moment to recall 'Right, Farin said her employer, and now mine I guess, would come and greet me in person after she got home from school today.'

She opened the door and looked with some interest at the girl outside, the long dark purple hair that should have been fake, but on second look apparently was not, not tall, just slightly longer than Buffy, although unlike Buffy, this girl seemed like she still had some more growing to do, the short blue skirt and the neat white shirt together with her calm and almost noble presence gave her a look somewhere in the middle of stately businesswoman in a hot climate and a young rich girl heading for the tennis court.

Faith hesitated for a moment over how to greet her "Eh, miss Tsukimura I presume?"

The girl smiled "Yup, that´s me and not a doctor in sight in this wilderness-"

Faith blinked as she mentally stumbled for a moment at the non sequiteur before she snorted at the rather lame pun.

"- But please, just call me Suzuka or I will just start to look around for mom or my big sis."

"Good, I prefer that, Suzuka. And I´m Faith, most definitely not Stanley."

Suzuka smiled wider and nodded, glad that Faith had got the slightly obscure reference and even understood the joke "Ok, now I need to talk to you about a few things, how about we go sit down on the back porch, it´s such a lovely weather today..."

.

A few minutes later they were seated "Now, I ask you not to get too shocked. Because 1, I very much appreciate the slayer-thingy you and Buffy are doing, 2, I take my responsibility as your new employer seriously and I don´t want you to start your first day here by passing out or something...-"

'Crap, I knew it. It had to be too good to be true...'

"- 3, this isn´t charity, I really need someone -reliable- doing what is now your job, and finally, I guarantee that I have no ill will or plans or whatever against you or humanity overall, as I noted to Buffy´s friends the other day, I´m dangerous but I probably mean less harm to humans in general than the average human."

Suzuka ended by smiling nicely.

'Damn...' Faith groaned with a grimace "I think I can skip the fainting at least, so what mess have I jumped into head first this time?"

Suzuka chuckled "Hopefully no mess at all..."

"You´re, not human are you?"

"Not really no... We´re not... incompatible with humans though."

"So you want Xander then..." Faith gave a short chuckle.

"What?" Suzuka asked with confusion apparent.

"Every girl that shows interest in him, a mummy, a demon..."

"Oh..." Suzuka giggled "That´s what they were referring to the other day... Sorry though, Xander seemed like a decent guy, but not really interested."

"Fine... So are you going to keep me on the rack by not telling me much longer?"

"Ah sorry... It´s a bit hard to explain to someone called a vampire slayer, it worked out fine with Buffy even though I didn´t realise that she didn´t recognise what I was so I´m a bit nervous since I don´t want you to react badly either. Or maybe it was because I thought she already knew..."

Seeing that Faith now glared at her in impatience, she smiled back, widely and pointedly in more than one way "Right then, well you know all those vampires you hunt down, when my people talk about them we often call them the damn fakes or something along those lines..."

For a moment, Faith felt like the world had turned unreal, or possibly upside down, she was sitting next to one of the nicest people she could ever recall meeting, and the girl had just showed her tiny but noticeable fangs and essentially declared herself a vampire of some sorts. Sitting there in the -sunlight-. Many things made very little sense at the moment.

"O-K... Assuming you are some sort of vampire, what the hell -is- the deal then?" fortunately, Faiths bad experience with vampires so far had not included cute young girls doing her a favour, and certainly not one enjoying the sunshine. Combined with the surprise, her reaction was decently neutral.

Faith got somewhat bewildered when she saw Suzuka deflate somewhat as she sighed deeply "Huh?"

"I´m relieved that you didn´t just run away or try to kill me or something."

"Noone ever tried to hurt me by being nice. And if Buffy and all think you´re ok, that says, well quite a lot actually."

"Ah, Giles doesn´t know."

"Oh? But Buffy´s flunkies -do-?"

"Uh-huh, Buffy thought it would be fun to let him try to figure out on hiw own."

Faith snorted a rough chuckle "Oh that -IS- a fun idea... But again, the deal and the spiel?"

Suzuka shrugged "Nothing really, the only thing that could make you think I was anything like the fakes is the blood thing and I only bite by invite."

Faith finally relaxed again 'Either she´s telling the truth or she´s the best liar I´ve ever met... Nah, not even that would be enough. Hah, take that, all-knowing watchers council...' she had a mental chuckle at how the watcher council would react to a friendly, sunloving and non-bitey vampire.

Faith then frowned a little "If you only bite by invite, how can you survive?"

"Oh that´s no problem, unlike the fakes I can live quite well on just regular food. However I do have a special freezer with blood, but since there´s more to it than just the physical substance of blood, well that´s one of the reasons why I have Farin around."

Faith blinked several times "Your maid is... your walking blood bank?"

"And nanny, friend, cook, extra sister and mother... She´s been with me ever since I was born."

Faith hesitated and frowned again for a moment "But, she can´t be more than a few years older than you?"

"Getting bit regularly is quite the fountain of youth, well not exactly, but yes she´s only 8 years older than me."

"You´re not kidding..."

"Her family has a tradition of serving mine since many centuries back. Whenever there´s a birth in my family, they bring any of theirs that are eligible to become a servant and the one that connects the most to the newborn is given the position." Suzuka smiled widely "I´m told that Farin was very animated about being selected despite being the youngest there, she was quite ecstatic over little me."

Faith chuckled and shook her head "Damn, different world..."

"More than you think... Oh right, I´m going to get you a key so you can get into the training room in the mansion as well."

"Training room?"

"I need it to keep in shape, and after I dented the floor at the school yesterday I figured it´s safer to only go full out here where I know it can handle my strength, and Buffy really loved being able to go all out, so I expect you might like it as well."

"You _dented_ the -floor-? So this room is obscenely well padded then?"

"Mmm, 2 inch steel lining the walls and very strong padding, it takes up most of what used to be the winecellar of the house."

"2 inch steel? Huh, cool."

...

After talking some further, Faith found that there was an additional reason why she didn´t react badly to the other girl.

"I gotta ask, my slayersense, it´s like a crappy radar for feeling nearby vampi-, sorry, vamps and demons and stuff like that, uhm, with you it´s like, it feels like it wants me to go over and give you a hug or something instead of warning me of baddies."

"Really? Huh... Maybe it´s like vamps are negative copies of us so you get the opposite from me or... Or maybe..." Suzuka frowned.

"What?"

"Just a thought, I guess it´s a nice thing for me but I have a bad feeling about why it´s there..."

Faith looked at the hint of worry now visible and wondered what it was, not sure if she should ask, then she noticed the time "Hey, didn´t you say you were gonna meet Buffy and the 3 stooges soon?"

"Oh, damn, time flies-"

"A real quick little birdy." Faith quipped, getting Suzuka to smile.

"You want to come?"

"Oh no, I´m gonna get real well acquainted and comfy with my lovely new bed, courtesy of you, and thank you -very- much for that by the way, best bed I´ve ever had."

Suzuka giggled "You´re welcome, have fun! Bye." she said with a theatrical wink as she got up and left, leaving a slightly stunned Faith behind.

A moment later Faith laughed lightly 'I guess that works too...'

-*o*-

* * *

Yes, I´m still alive, just a lot of crap happening lately having kept my writing down, and most of what I **have** written have been for stories as yet not posted.

And the next update for my big Naruto story is still not done. Parts of the next chapter there was one of the first parts I wrote for the story, and some of it now looks really poor in quality, not to mention parts of it having become irrelevant to the story(because it´s already part of earlier chapters), so it´s taking an awfully long while to fix it up to something decent looking. Still, finally made some real progress on it lately.


End file.
